Healing from alcohol addiction (Help for others)

S. V. (56), Sittard (Netherlands), about her neighbor

We got new neighbors in March 2000. The woman lay in bed all the time and only got up to drink alcohol. You never saw her outside the flat the whole summer long. When her balcony door was open, the smell of beer was hardly bearable. They bought alcohol continually - a case of beer every day. When her son came to visit, he also brought beer along. Everyone else, too, who visited her drank alcohol. Her husband worked all day long.

The woman was admitted to the withdrawal clinic "De Paas" in Brunssum to get rid of the alcoholism. Although she was completely dry while there, as soon as she came home it started all over again. She would drink beer all day long and in addition also take sleeping pills. Our cooperative housing association had already given notice to these neighbors, the social worker didn’t want to help any more and their family doctor, too, refused to visit them.

That was the situation when my wife did einstellen for help and healing for this neighbor at a community hour in June of 2000. My wife simply requested inwardly that our neighbor be freed from alcohol. We have been in the Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends since 1990.

A miraculous transformation

A few days later we both saw that our neighbor’s washing had been hung up outside. There was a good deal of cleaning and vacuuming going on. We hadn’t experienced that the whole summer long. When we saw our neighbor on the stairway, she spoke to us and said, "I have been freed from my alcohol addiction; I can’t stand alcohol any more!" She took us along into her apartment, where everything was very orderly. It didn’t stink any more. She said that she wanted to do more tidying up and showed us her cupboards, in which everything had been put in order. We wondered what her family doctor had said about her being freed from the alcohol addiction. She told us that it was a puzzle for him, and that he cited words from the Bible.

Another neighbor came up to us and asked, "What happened to her that she doesn’t drink any more alcohol? A miracle must have happened." This other neighbor made friends with the healed person. Both women now go walking together. My wife has also frequent contact with the woman now. She asked her from the balcony, "How’s it going? Are you still taking sleeping pills?" The women answered, "No, nothing; and I can also look down from the balcony. I couldn’t do that before because I was afraid of heights."

The cooperative housing association didn’t yet know that the neighbor had stopped drinking and wanted to evict the couple. But I informed the person in charge of the new situation. Thus they were able to stay. Now we have got an entirely new neighbor. We moved away on January 28, 2002, and only seldom have contact with her. But she is still doing well.

Psychologist’s comment:

This was clearly a serious situation: aside from the health risk, this woman was threatened by exclusion from the usual medical and social assistance and eviction from her flat due to her alcohol addiction. Further decline was feared (becoming homeless, divorce, etc.). It is remarkable that only three days after the einstellen by Mrs. V. and the community, such a radical improvement occurred for this woman and that this freedom from alcohol has since continued for several years. Seen from a psychological point of view, this healing is not explicable.
K. K., psychologist